Movies/TV category, Page 91
TV Talk: ‘Evil’ explores fear-based doomscrolling on Paramount+Video
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. While husband-and-wife writers Robert and Michelle King’s “The Good Fight” won’t return to Paramount+ until Sept. 8 for its sixth and final season, their supernatural-adjacent “Evil” returns Sunday for its third season — but it’s...
TV Talk: Amazon Freevee revives ‘American Rust,’ ‘Justified’ revisits Pittsburgh
Never say never again: Five months after Showtime canceled filmed-in-Pittsburgh “American Rust,” the Western Pennsylvania-set drama has been revived. Amazon Freevee, formerly IMDb TV and also home to the upcoming filmed-in-Pittsburgh comedy “Sprung,” ordered a second season of “American Rust” starring Jeff Daniels and Maura Tierney. It will again film...
TV Talk: If you’re not watching ‘For All Mankind,’ you’re missing Apple TV+’s best seriesVideo
In an era of too much TV, critics have to jump from reviewing one new show to the next and often don’t have the luxury of sticking with all the shows they like. But after hearing enough good things from TV critic friends about how great Apple TV+’s “For All...
AEW continues to thrive after celebrating 3rd anniversary
LOS ANGELES — All Elite Wrestling continues to thrive with compelling matches while attracting new fans three years after making its debut. The upstart professional wrestling circuit kicked off a busy summer schedule by returning to Las Vegas for its “Double or Nothing” pay-per-view for the first time since its...
David Cronenberg on the evolution to ‘Crimes of the Future’
A remarkable number of the films by David Cronenberg could easily be called “Crimes of the Future.” In fact, he already used the title once before, on a short feature in 1970. His latest film, also called “Crimes of the Future” but unrelated to the earlier work apart from the...
TV Q&A: Why hasn’t a KDKA-TV anchor been on the air?
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen answers reader questions every Wednesday at TribLive.com in a column that also appears in the Sunday Tribune-Review. Q: Where has Meghan Schiller of KDKA-TV news been? Why hasn’t she been on the air? – Susan, Steubenville Rob: In early May, Schiller posted about...
TV Talk: W.Pa.-filmed ‘League of Their Own’ premieres in AugustVideo
All eight episodes of Amazon Prime Video’s “A League of Their Own,” which filmed throughout Western Pennsylvania in 2021, will finally premiere on the streaming service on Aug. 12. The series is inspired by the 1992 Penny Marshall-directed film of the same name that starred Geena Davis and Tom Hanks....
Pittsburgh Pop podcast: Talking TV news sweeps ratings, ‘All Rise,’ streaming movies, ‘Obi Wan Kenobi’
In this episode of the “Pittsburgh Pop” podcast, host Tim Benz and TV Talk columnist Rob Owen discuss Pittsburgh pop culture news of the moment, including May sweeps TV newscast ratings. The pair also review – spoilers included! – what they liked and disliked about “Obi Wan Kenobi” episode three...
Unfolding in reverse, ‘The Tsugua Diaries’ might be 2022’s most glorious summer movie
In one of the loveliest sequences in “The Tsugua Diaries,” a sly, summery delight from Portugal, two men and a woman raise a series of wooden beams. As they work together — patiently, intuitively, almost wordlessly — the structure they’re building gradually takes shape, and so, piece by piece, does...
Jennifer Lopez, ‘Spider-Man’ highlight MTV Movie & TV Awards
LOS ANGELES — Jennifer Lopez made an emotional speech about how believers and skeptics contributed to her success, as she accepted a career achievement honor at the MTV Movie & TV Awards on Sunday. “I want to thank the people who gave me joy and the ones who broke my...
TV Talk: New channel, same courtroom: ‘All Rise’ returnsVideo
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. “All Rise” was a welcome outlier on CBS during its two-season, 2019-2021 run on the network. A courtroom procedural among a sea of law enforcement procedurals, “All Rise,” at least in early episodes, got...
‘Top Gun’ stays aloft with $86M in its 2nd weekend
NEW YORK — The high-flying “Top Gun: Maverick” continued to soar in its second weekend, dropping just 32% from its opening with $86 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday. The Paramount Pictures release, with Tom Cruise reprising his role from the 1986 original, is holding steadier than...
TV Talk: Pittsburgher hosts A&E’s ‘Living Smaller’
As a former New York City resident, Pittsburgher Cinque Cerra-Saunders has experience “Living Smaller,” which is also the title of the A&E series he hosts at 12 and 12:30 p.m. Saturdays beginning June 4. “In New York City, we don’t call it living smaller, we just call it living,” Cerra-Saunders...
A woman abroad feels an unwelcome gaze in new film ‘Watcher’
In the haunting and sophisticated new thriller “Watcher,” Maika Monroe plays an American woman who is feeling uneasy in her new hometown of Bucharest. Her character, Julia, sees a man in a high rise across the street who appears to be looking at her in her apartment. At the market,...
As Amber Heard plans appeal, lawyer says she can’t pay Johnny Depp $10.4 million
Amber Heard will “absolutely” appeal the verdict reached this week in her defamation trial against ex-husband Johnny Depp, her attorney announced Thursday morning. Elaine Bredehoft, who represented the “Aquaman” actor at the trial in Fairfax, Virginia, told NBC’s “Today” show that her client has “excellent grounds” for an appeal after...
TV Talk: Streaming saves the mid-tier movie; WTAE-TV improves morning news lead in May sweepsVideo
While Tom Cruise’s “Top Gun Maverick” was busy drawing movie fans back to theaters last weekend, making a record-breaking $160 million over four days, streaming services have reclaimed the middle-budget movie (films made for $5-$50 million) for their platforms. And some of them are quite good. Disney+’s “Chip ‘n Dale:...
TV Talk: Billy Porter’s filmed-in Pittsburgh feature directorial debut lands on Amazon
Billy Porter’s feature film directorial debut, shot last summer in Pittsburgh under the title “What If?” but now called “Anything’s Possible,” will debut July 22 on streaming service Amazon Prime Video. Variety broke the news of the release date and platform. The $10 million film is a joyful coming-of-age story...
TV Q&A: Where’s a WTAE-TV traffic reporter been?
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen answers reader questions every Wednesday at TribLive.com in a column that also appears in the Sunday Tribune-Review. Q: Any idea what happened to Sam Hall on the WTAE morning news? It seems like he was maybe replaced by Elena LaQuatra which is sad,...
Explainer: A look at Bill Cosby’s sexual assault civil trial
LOS ANGELES — Eleven months after he was freed from prison when a Pennsylvania appeals court threw out his criminal conviction, Bill Cosby, 85, will again be the defendant in a trial over sexual assault allegations. This time, it will be in a civil case in California relating to events...
Pittsburgh Pop podcast: Talking ‘Top Gun,’ ‘Obi Wan Kenobi,’ ‘Pistol’
In this episode of the “Pittsburgh Pop” podcast, host Tim Benz and TV Talk columnist Rob Owen discuss pop culture news of the moment, including the new “Top Gun Maverick,” which broke Memorial Day weekend box office records. The pair also review – spoilers included! – what they like and...
Rachel Zegler to star in ‘Hunger Games’ prequel
NEW YORK — Fresh off her breakthrough role in Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story,” Rachel Zegler will star in Lionsgate’s planned “Hunger Games” prequel. The studio announced Tuesday that Zegler will play Lucy Gray Baird in “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,” an extension of the “Hunger...
‘Top Gun: Maverick’ wins Tom Cruise 1st $100 million opening
Forget breaking the sound barrier: Tom Cruise just flew past a major career milestone. The 59-year-old superstar just got his first $100 million opening weekend with “Top Gun: Maverick.” In its first three days in North American theaters, the long-in-the-works sequel earned an estimated $124 million in ticket sales, Paramount...
TV Talk: Pittsburgh native helps ‘Star Wars’ fill in some blanks with ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week: Disney+’s “Obi Wan Kenobi,” now streaming, seeks to not only fill in a gap in the Skywalker saga, but also to bridge the great divide between older “Star Wars” fans devoted to the original trilogy...
Ray Liotta, ‘Goodfellas’ and ‘Field of Dreams’ star, dies
Ray Liotta, the actor best known for playing mobster Henry Hill in “Goodfellas” and baseball player Shoeless Joe Jackson in “Field of Dreams,” has died. He was 67. An official at the Dominican Republic’s National Forensic Science Institute who was not authorized to speak to the media confirmed the death...
Ellen DeGeneres ends daytime show with plea for compassion
LOS ANGELES — Ellen DeGeneres brought her nearly two-decade daytime talk show to an end Thursday with a celebrity lovefest and a forceful assertion of her achievement as a gay woman daring to be herself. DeGeneres and guests Jennifer Aniston, Billie Eilish and Pink shared memories and affection as “The...
